Posted on 06/10/2010 9:56:33 AM PDT by day21221
12,000 Minnesota nurses launch 1-day walkout MINNEAPOLIS -- Outside Abbott Northwestern Hospital, what was called the largest nurses strike in U.S. history began Thursday to the sounds of "Amazing Grace" played on Michael Redmond's bagpipe. The 50-year-old nurse, wearing a red Minnesota Nurses Association T-shirt and green plaid kilt, said he picked the song because of its history as an old abolitionist rallying cry.
He played as night-shift nurses walked off the job early Thursday. BuzzHe said he sees a connection between the old fight against slavery and the strike by 12,000 Minnesota nurses. "The rally cry is that we're standing up for patient care and we're standing up for ourselves," he said. A key issue in the dispute was the nurses' demand for strict nurse-to-patient ratios, rejected by hospitals as inflexible and unnecessary. Sue Stamness, a cardiology nurse at Abbott for 24 years, said patient safety was the nurses' top concern.
"Nobody is listening to what we are saying," Stamness said. The nurses began their one-day strike at 7 a.m. at 14 hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Organizers said nurses would walk picket lines in three eight-hour shifts and by the end of the day nearly all 12,000 would participate. called the largest nurses' strike in U.S. history by both the union and the hospitals, the immediate effect was expected to be minimal. Hospitals hired 2,800 replacement nurses, called in extra non-unionized staff, reduced patient levels and some hospitals rescheduled elective surgeries.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
they average over 70k a year...I can’t see many getting to worked up for their cause in this recession.
Every union member that goes on strike while under contract ought to be able to be fired when they don’t show up for work due to a strike. If they go on strike while not under contract, they ought to be fired as well.
Fire them all.
Unions, having destroyed manufacturing, are looking at one of the few remaining profitable industries in the US, and looking to leech off of that.
A friend in an intensive 2 1/2 year LPN nursing program reports that after covering in class the upcoming changes coming from Obama care, all of the liberal and leftist students are furious to find out they will still have to buy health care insurance.
I am a nurse so please allow me to opine.
Nurses are historically overworked and underpaid. However, nurses typically reap what they sow. backstabbing & infighting have allowed the labor unions to engage in class warfare & convince RNs that only a union can make their life better. I’ve worked in two unionized hospitals throughout my career & I can tell you, all the unions do is take $ from these nurses & expoit them. Usual story. A union is not the answer. Period. I could go on & on about this but you get my point. Unions are BS & I wish workers would wake up!
...and they earn every penny of it
Good time to rid themselves of union nurses?
First of all, I would like to express my appreciation for your dedication and hard work. I have spent time in the hospital as well as some of my family members. A good nurse is a great credit to her profession.
I must say that unions are, in a nutshell, organized crime.
In my opinion, nurses should contract their services to hospitals as independent contractors. Trust me, everyone including patients would benefit from this. The free market would regulate and we’d get rid of the union thugs’ fingers in hospital business.
70k here in MN isn’t “rich”, but ALL the people I know personally who make over 70k a year in MN are also NOT in a union.
I get really tired of local “clergy” marching with unions and holding vigils.
Stick to saving souls rather than saving union bosses.
I love nurses, but unions are bad, mmkay?
Unions are scum suckers that take your hard-earned cheque and collect tolls.
if they are not happy with the job, they should find another one. that’s the way a free market should work.
Fire them.
Is UPS unionized? Just askin’.
Fired!
I concur.They exist soley to elect demonrats.
Yes, Teamsters, why?
btw, I am not a fan of unions
Nothing, I just didn’t know for sure...thanks.
And replace them with......? There is a nurse shortage.
I never grant sainthood for people based on their profession.
I’ve found there to be plenty of rotten nurses, cops, and teachers .
Being in a union often seems to protect the most rotten of the rotten.
I notice that some churches have gotten so far off message, that churches are starting to advertise “Bible-based” sermons.
If the nursing union can't show that there is a statistical correlation between lower staffing levels and risk to patients, it's because there is no such thing.
Not around here.
I’d bet MO-AR nurses would jump at $70 K + benefits.
You’re welcome. I’ve had my challenges with some in UPS management over the years but nothing I couldn’t deal with myself. UPS is quite successful in spite of union interference in the running of the company. Even though the drivers are unionized, a person would be hard pressed to find another group of employees that outworks them.
The nurses I’ve known are of the same work ethic. Maybe it’s just this part of the country (ND) but I’d prefer to believe it is true all over.
all of the liberal and leftist students are furious to find out they will still have to buy health care insurance.
You Betcha! All along they’ve been promising their Libtard base that it would be FREE!
I have an aunt here in Texas who is a nurse, and she says nursing is the worse profession a woman could choose.
She says the general public doesn’t know what goes on behind the scenes.
They have tremendous, life and death responsibility, they get low pay and are treated like slaves (forced to work short handed and for long hours) and dogs by the doctors, families and the general public.
That being said, I don’t know what the answer is to their problem. Maybe going on strike is the only solution.
You don't think many agonized walking off the job? I do. They maintained no one is listening to them about conditions, chances are this won't help. I'll guarantee you, nurses care more for their patients well being than do administration. Their complaint is not for more money, they are short staffed. They are tired.
I know many nurses. Nurses get paid very well, and have very good benefits on average. Some of them work in stressful jobs, but they don’t have to unless they want to.
Them doing a walk-out just proves how utterly rediculous unions have become. These people only care about lining their pockets and nothing more.
OK, but anyone (union or not) who walks off the job with no approved absence, no illness, and no personal emergency should expect to be fired.
.
I have nothing against nurses.
(My mom is one, right here in MN.)
The unions are the problem.
Yes, they should, it is a distinct possibility. They had to weigh that in their minds. No one is entitled to a job.
Ok bye. Fire ‘em. Hire someone else.
Oh, and by the way. Any patient or patient’s family that suffers injury or loss because of this, PERSONALLY SUE the nurse that walked out and the union. PERSONALLY SUE.
Your friend going part-time?
I know many nurses.....
Some are over-worked no doubt about it....but they put up with it.
I also know many nurses that have great hours...and make good money.
fwiw-
I spent 7 years as a critical care nurse before finishing my Master’s and becoming a nurse anesthetist. Bedside nursing is one of the toughest jobs for a whole host of reasons. However, as I said, unions are not the answer to nursing’s woes.
Lot's depends on where you work..and who you work for.
Congrats on your degree....
Good luck!!
The vigil was organized by SEIU, a union representing other workers and health care providers in Twin Cities hospitals. "What's the greater sin?" asked Tee McClenty, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. "Speaking out for patient care (and leaving the bedside) or staying quiet while the problem festers?"
http://www.twincities.com/ci_15264284?nclick_check=1
ER.....fun in the middle of the night ;)
Bless you for your years of caring. Sometimes it’s rewarding, other times it’s trying, but it’s always for the love of our fellow human beings.
I’ve been a CRNA now for 5 years. I love it! And I have immense respect for our collegues @ the bedside saddled with enormous patient assignments. I hope we find a way to advance our profession while increasing the quality of care for our patients. Unfortuantely, I do believe with Obamacare, tough times are ahead for us all, both patients and providers.
During my long working life=over 53 years total=I have had to join 5 different unions. Some of that work was blue collar, most of it was white collar.
I found that those of us who had incentive & motivation, got taken aside & told to stop working so hard. “We were messing up the expectations of the company which the union had worked hard to hold down in individual production”.
I once worked for a fairly large So Calif grocery chain which no longer exists. They had 72 stores, & I worked in the office with 21 others, processing what was then called “DSD”-direct store delivery. Bread, milk, & other perishables were sent directly to the stores, & we processed the invoices on a 5 day a week basis for the 7 days a week of these deliveries.
Of those 72 stores, I personally did the 7 largest stores, with the most volume. The other 21 processed the paperwork for the remaining 65 stores.
I got ‘talked to’ 3 different times in the bathroom by the ‘union steward’. I was stunned. This was against everything I had ever been taught about doing the best I could do. Finally, the union applied enough pressure to the company that I was fired on Friday, Nov 11, 1966. I was told it was because I was being ‘too disruptive’. I was 27.
That was a hard lesson.
After that- I shunned jobs that were union. By the time I was 37, I went out on my own & have been self-employed ever since.
Unions have lost their original purpose.
They now don’t protect the worker so much as they break the back of the employer.
Some day, people are going to figure out that more people might have jobs in the first place if the unions were not involved.
all of the liberal and leftist students are furious to find out they will still have to buy health care insurance.”
Payback is a beeeaatch.
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